Dollar Tree to start selling some items for $7
Despite the name, Dollar Tree actually raised its starting price to $1.25 in 2021, and last year, started selling some things for $3 and $5.
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Customers at Dollar Tree stores around the country, and the area, could be in for a surprise this year, when they notice some items cost as much as $7.
Despite the name, Dollar Tree actually raised its starting price to $1.25 in 2021, and last year, started selling some things for $3 and $5, leading people like Lisa Carpenter, from Nowalk, to say the name "definitely should be changed from Dollar Tree, because nothing's a dollar anymore."
Other customers outside the chain's Norwalk location, like Daria Kushnir, from Darien, agreed, saying "dollar signs should be taken off long ago."
It was on an earnings call earlier this month that CEO Rick Dreiling announced the plans, and at first, some people, like Carpenter, told News 12 they agreed, citing inflation and rising costs everywhere.
While Dreiling explained on the call that inflation and rising shipping costs are part of the reason, he said the main cause is actually because research is showing that more and more Dollar Tree customers make over $125,000 a year.
"I don't make nearly that so, that's weird," reacted Carpenter, while Kushner wondered "what are the other customers supposed to do? It's not fair."
Similar frustration was shown by Monica Haffey, a teacher from Norwalk, who said "you see the name dollar tree so, I come here to get things that are a dollar... if I thought things were going to be $5, $7, I would just go to a different store probably, because I usually come here to get things that are budget friendly."
Kushnir and her husband Vladimir said they would still shop at the chain regardless though, since "prices are going up everywhere, this is still the cheapest place we know about."
This probably won't be the end of prices rising. On the same earnings call, executives said the plan is for Dollar Tree to eventually sell things that cost as much as $10.
